Sun God

Steiner was rarely clear, but he did manage to be clear on one point: Christ is the Sun God.

Before coming to Earth, Christ lived on the Sun, where he presided as the local god.

Here is Steiner saying this over and over.

There are some conflicts between the various statements, but on this one point they are clear:

Christ is the Sun God.

I have also included a few quotes from Steiner's followers.

“The highest Ruler of Saturn, the Ego Spirit, appears to us as the Father God, and the highest Ruler of Sun, the Sun-God, as the Christ. Similarly the Ruler of the Moon stage of Earth appears to us as the Holy Spirit with his hosts known in Christian esotericism as the Messengers of the Godhead, the angels.” — Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 100.

"My dear friends, when the pupils of the old initiates looked out into the wide universe and spoke of what they saw living out there beyond the Earth in the workings of the Sun, yes, in the Sun itself — when they spoke of the sublime Spirit-Being of the Sun as proclaimed by Zarathustra, they were speaking of the very same Being Whom, in these later times, we designate as Christ." — Rudolf Steiner, MAN'S LIFE ON EARTH AND IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS (Health Research Books, 1960), pp. 14-15.

“With greater or less understanding, the first Christians of the earliest centuries after Christ regarded him as the `mighty Sun God'. But during these first Christian centuries, the faculty of instinctive clairvoyance once possessed by human beings was fading. People could no longer see in the sun the great kingdom at whose center the Christ had once dwelt.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009), p. 41.

“Then came the epoch which was to prepare for the descent of the cosmic sun god upon the earth. The spirit who previously had been external now had to enter into the human soul, had to be found within it, even as formerly the Luciferic divinities and Osiris were to be found there. The two paths clearly shown in the contrasts between the Chaldeans and the Egyptians had to make one another fruitful. Such an event was essential. How could it take place? It could only occur after a ‘connecting link’ had been created. This proceeded from Ur of Chaldea, as the Bible truly states. It takes up the revelation coming from without then it passes on into Egypt, absorbs that which comes from within and unites the two, so that for the first time in Jahve we have a being heralding the Christ who unites the two paths. Jahve or Jehovah is a divinity to be found on the inward path, but Jahve is not visible in himself. He only becomes visible when illuminated from without. Jehovah reflects the light of Christ.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1940), chapter 8, GA 113.

"If we then follow the life of this child [i.e., Jesus] and his permeation by the spirit of the Christ-Being, we come to realise that this Being, this Christ-Being, comes from the sun." — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 307.

"We thus see the Mystery of Golgotha [the Crucifixion] descending in stages from the heights of spirit, where it occurred as the first Christ event in Lemurian times [i.e., when humanity lived on the continent of Lemuria], until it reached the physical plane in the Mystery of Golgotha. This may serve to indicate the whole significance of this unique event in Earth evolution, showing that it was well prepared in advance from the higher worlds. The connection with the sublime Sun spirit, which we have emphasized on a number of occasions, is also apparent in the Greek Apollo idea, for Apollo was the Sun god.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FIFTH GOSPEL (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), p. 181.

“The rituals through which one can contact gods and goddesses of old offer a deep sense of satisfaction. However, times have changed, spiritual beings evolve also and are known by other names. Christ, the Sun God, who was known by earlier peoples under such names as Ahura Mazda, Hu or Balder, has not united himself with the earth and its future evolution.” — Margaret Jonas, Introduction to RUDOLF STEINER SPEAKS TO THE BRITISH (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 5.

"Christ stands before us, the Spirit Being who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, united Himself with the Earth. And He says to us: Be not dismayed that the Sun has become black; it is black because I, the God of the Sun, am no longer in it; for I have come down and united myself with the Earth." — Rudolf Steiner, PLANETARY SPHERES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON MAN'S LIFE ON EARTH AND IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 5, GA 218.

“The sun-god was experienced as driving across the sky in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds. And now Rudolf Steiner revived this image for what he wished to impart to the young people - the picture of a chariot, but one coming from the spiritual world into the earthly world.” — Ernest Lehrs, “The Rising Generation”, in A MAN BEFORE OTHERS: Rudolf Steiner Remembered (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p. 113.

“Initiates saw in the birth of Jesus the Earth event that could bring about transition from lunar to solar orientation.” — Synopsis, lecture 1 in THE CYCLE OF THE YEAR AS BREATHING-PROCESS OF THE EARTH (SteinerBooks, 1984), a collection of Steiner lectures, p. 5.

“The divine spirit we should venerate is not in a particular place on earth but is connected with the power of the sun, the living nature of the sun which the Christ has taken into himself.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 228.

“In enacting this ritual, the officiating priest said to his pupils, and they then repeated it to others: ‘This is the sign and token that before you came down to the earth you were in a spirit-realm that is the abode of the Sun-God. Look up to the sun which radiates light! Whatever you see is only the outward revelation of the Sun-Being. Behind its radiance is the eternal Sun-God who ensures immortality for you.’ Thus those who received this teaching knew that they had come down from spiritual worlds into the earthly world, but that they had forgotten the world where dwells the Sun-God. But the priest told them: ‘Through your birth you have departed from the realm of the Sun-God. When you pass through death you shall find that realm again through the power that he, the Sun-God, has laid in your hearts.’” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1958), “World-Pentecost; The Message of Anthroposophy”, GA 226.

“The Star Wisdom had, however, been lost. And now came Christ Jesus who brought it to life again — but in a new form — teaching that the Sun God must now have his place upon the Earth. If Christ's teaching had gained the victory, knowledge of the Sun influence and indeed of the ancient Star Religion in its entirety would again have been present in the world. Moreover in the early Christian centuries this was in many ways the case. There was a certain revival of the ancient Mystery teachings. But Christ Jesus had brought about the great and fundamental change in that He placed as a reality before all the world what had previously been guarded as a close secret in the Mysteries. Thereafter it would have been within the reach of all human beings, but no effort succeeded in spreading the knowledge.” — Rudolf Steiner, STAR WISDOM, MOON RELIGION, SUN RELIGION (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1950), lecture 1, GA 353.

“Had Christ not appeared on the earth, had He remained the Sun-God only, humanity on the earth would have fallen into decay. Increasingly men would have come to believe that material things alone exist, that the sun and the stars are material bodies. For men had forgotten altogether that they themselves had descended from a pre-earthly existence, from the spirit-world of the stars.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1958), “World-Pentecost; The Message of Anthroposophy”, GA 226.

“Christ stands before us, the Spirit Being who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, united Himself with the Earth. And He says to us: Be not dismayed that the Sun has become black; it is black because I, the God of the Sun, am no longer in it; for I have come down and united myself with the Earth.” — Rudolf Steiner, MAN'S LIFE ON EARTH AND IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS (Health Research Books, 1960), p. 95.

“At the baptism in Jordan, when the significant symbol of the dove appeared above the head of Jesus, he was not merely inspired but directly intuited by the Christ. On that occasion something shot through the entire body of Jesus of Nazareth, even into those parts which, at the present stage of human development, are most withdrawn from the influence of man — the very bones. I am now about to say something which to the materialistic consciousness of the present day seems nonsense; but that is of no matter. At the moment when the body of Jesus of Nazareth was permeated and fired by the Individuality of Christ — the great Sun-Spirit — the effect reached even into the bones.” — Rudolf Steiner, UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN (H. Collison, 1932), chapter 10, GA 105.

“The Sun was itself a kind of being of air, surrounded by that substance which had previously formed Saturn-fire, warmth. The part that had densified had formed the gaseous Sun, and what had not densified was a surging sea of fire. These beings could live on the Sun and inhale and exhale warmth, fire; they were therefore called the Spirits of Fire. They stood at the human level on the Sun and they worked in the service of humanity. One calls them Sun Spirits or Fire Spirits. Man at that time was at the stage of sleep-consciousness, the Sun-Fire Spirits had already the ego consciousness. Since then they too have developed further and ascended to higher degrees of consciousness. One calls them in Christian Esotericism Archangels. And the highest evolved Spirit Who was on the Sun as Fire Spirit, Who today is still active upon the Earth, with very highly evolved consciousness, this Sun or Fire Spirit is the Christ. In the same way the most evolved Saturn Spirit is the Father God.

“Christian Esotericism knows that there was incarnated in the body of flesh and blood of Christ-Jesus precisely such a Sun-Fire Spirit, and indeed the highest, the Regent of the Sun Spirits. That He might come on to the Earth He had to make use of a physical body, He had to live under the same earthly conditions as man, in order to be able to manifest here.” — Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 97.

“It was known to the initiated priests of these Mysteries that the sublime Sun-Spirit of whom they spoke to the worshippers is the same Being as He who would later be called the Christ. But before the Mystery of Golgotha the priests could speak to this effect only: “If you desire to know something of the Christ, you will seek in vain on the earth; you must be lifted to the secrets of the sun. For only outside and beyond the earth will you find the mysteries pertaining to the Christ.

“...Until the fourth century after the Mystery of Golgotha there were always some who knew that Christ, the Sun-Being, and the Christ who had lived in Jesus of Nazareth were one and the same. It is deeply moving to learn from Spiritual Science of the fervent prayers of men in the early Christian centuries: 'Thanks be to the Christ-Being from whom we should perforce have been separated, had He not come down from spiritual worlds to us here on earth!'

“After the fourth century A.D. the human mind could no longer comprehend that the Christ, who ensures immortality for men, was the sublime, divine Sun-Being. From that time until our own day there have been only the external words of the Gospels, telling of the Mystery of Golgotha. Nevertheless, these words of the Gospels worked throughout the centuries with such power that they turned men's hearts to the Mystery of Golgotha.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING, Vol. 3 (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1958), lecture 3, GA 226.

“[O]ne can also call the Sun Oracle the Christ Oracle. The unification of the Christ-Being with the earth took place when the blood flowed from the wounds of Jesus Christ at Golgotha. That is when His essence united with the atmosphere of the earth, as can be perceived even today in clairvoyant retrospection. That is how the Christ-Being came down from the Sun to earth. When the light of spiritual illumination fell on Saul-Paul near Damascus, Paul beheld the Christ that was united with the earth and knew immediately that it was He who had shed His blood at Golgotha.

“The sun oracle of ancient Atlantis had already prophesied the coming of Christ, of the Sun-God. To be sure, he was named the Christ only much later, but we can still say that the Sun Oracle is the Christ Oracle.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL ECONOMY IN CONNECTION WITH QUESTIONS OF REINCARNATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1986) lecture 1, GA 109.

“External civilisation on the Earth arose through the fact that hardening on the one side and spiritualisation on the other side were prevented. Lucifer made use of what had been given by the Mars forces. The new state of the Earth was given the name of Mars. Things continued in this way until the middle of the Atlantean Race. Then a new question arose. Man had absorbed wisdom, but in the future it would not be possible for wisdom alone to manifest in a form-creating way. One would have been able to build up the mineral kingdom through Lucifer, but Lucifer could not have given it life. Man could never have imparted life under the influence of the other powers. This was why a Sun God had to come, a higher being than Lucifer. There still existed what are known as the Solar Pitris. The most exalted among these is Christ.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 26, GA 93a.

“Nor was it only in dim memory that the pupils of the initiates learned to know the Christ, with whom indeed all human beings lived before their descent to Earth. For by this time Christ was already a half-forgotten notion in the souls of men on Earth. But in the Mysteries the pupils learned to know Him once again in His full stature. Yet at the same time they knew Him as a Being who, if we may put it in these words, had lost His mission in the Worlds beyond the Earth. It was so in the Mysteries of the second and first centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha, that as they looked up to the Being in supersensible worlds who was afterwards called the Christ, they said: We still behold Him in the spiritual worlds, but His activity in those worlds grows ever less and less. For He was the Being who implanted in the souls of men what afterwards sprang forth within them as a memory of the time before their birth. The Christ-Being in the spiritual worlds had been the great Teacher of human souls, for what they would still bear in memory after their descent to Earth. Now that the souls of men on Earth were less and less able to kindle these memories to life, He who was afterwards called Christ appeared to the initiates as One who had lost His activity, His mission.” — Rudolf Steiner, “The Mystery of Golgotha” (ANTHROPOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 1, 1926), GA 214.

“Many of the modern evangelical theologians are no longer able to differentiate between the general concept of God and the concept of the Christ. To be unable to find the Christ in life is a different matter from being unable to find the Father God — You know that it is not here a matter of doubting the Divinity of the Christ. It is a matter of clear differentiation, in the sphere of the Divine, between the Father God and the Christ God.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 4, GA 194.

“The force enters into the form with ever increasing density and hence life in the Lemurian Age had to receive a new impulse, which was brought about by the turning around of the Earth Globe ... Four million years were needed by the Moon Pitris in order to turn the axis of the Earth. At that time the Moon Pitris development was already much further on than that of present day man.

"...Now there came a Sun Hero, similar to those who appeared in the Hyperborean Epoch, represented by Ezekiel as the Winged Lion. This Hero, Who gave the second impulse, is the Christ, the Lion out of the tribe of Judah. The representative of the Eagle will come only later; he represents the Father Principle. Christ is a Solar Hero, a Lion-Nature, a Sun Pitri.

“The third impulse will be represented by an Adept who was already an Adept on Saturn. Such a one cannot as yet incarnate on the Earth. When man is not only able to develop his higher nature upwards, but working creatively is able to renounce completely his lower nature, then will this highest Adept, the Saturn Adept, the Father Principle, the Hidden God, be able to incarnate.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 23, GA 93a.

Christ existed before the Sun came into being. Thus, Christ's identity as the Sun God may be seen as merely one phase of his evolving role in human spiritual development. Fundamentally, Christ may be seen as one of the gods or persons who formed the original Godhead. [See "God".] If we take Christ to be the personification of the Word of God, then it is possible to see Christ as the Creator. (This, clearly, is not the mainstream Judeo-Christian view.)

Here is how a priest in the "Christian Community" — the overtly religious arm of Anthroposophy — describes the matter:

"The logos — the second person of the Godhead — the comic Christ is the 'creator' ... [T]he cosmic Christ descends by stages through realms of angelic beings to the earth. These realms are represented outwardly by the world of the fixed stars and the planetary spheres. During this descent, Christ becomes a 'sun being' for a while — he was revered in this form by Zarathustra, in Egypt, and in Greece." — Hans-Werner Schroeder, THE COSMIC CHRIST (Floris Books, 1997), p. 136.

(Note that the "fixed stars" and "planetary spheres" are concepts rejected by science long ago. Such falsehoods linger only in occult systems such as Anthroposophy and astrology. [See "Astrology" and "Planets".] • "The fixed stars work in the human being, the moving planets work in the human being, and all the elements of nature work there as well." — Rudolf Steiner, THE ROOTS OF EDUCATION, The Foundations of Waldorf Education XIX (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 84. • “This enlightening anthology...features excerpts of Steiner's work on the spiritual individualities of the planets, the determination of human characteristics by the constellation at birth, the cultural epochs and the passage of the equinox, cosmic influences on the individual and humanity, life in the planetary spheres between death and rebirth, solar and lunar eclipses, comets, and much more.” — Publisher's description, ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009).

Here is an item from the Waldorf Watch "news" page

(I have edited it for use here):

"School's hard knock over field of dreams - A Steiner school operating out of the historic Abbotsford Convent faces closure after local residents successfully rallied against its expansion into an adjacent paddock.

"The Sophia Mundi Steiner School [Australia] sought to build five new classrooms on Abbotsford Convent land....

"But the Heritage Council has ruled against the school after receiving 2400 objections ... The dispute has created a bitter rift between several progressive institutions, and left parents of the school reeling.

"They allege the true motive of the campaign led by socialist Yarra City councillor Stephen Jolly was not to save the paddock but to shut down the school, which has about 200 students and 25 teachers....

"Mr Jolly told THE SUNDAY AGE that claims he was determined to close down the school were 'a load of bollocks'.

This story follows up on previous accounts. Apparently the dispute has become more bitter — and potentially more threatening to the school — than previously reported.

The association between the Convent and the Steiner school is ironic, considering the true nature of Steiner's form of "Christianity." In Steinerian belief, Christ is not the Son of God as Christians usually conceive Him. Instead, Christ is the Sun God — one of many, many gods in a polytheistic universe. Steiner taught that the Sun God descended to Earth to briefly inhabit the body of one of two Jesus children, whose souls combined for the purpose. in combining, they brought together the spirits of Zarathustra and Buddha.

The Sun God came to Earth in order to assist in human evolution. “Had Christ not appeared on the earth, had He remained the Sun-God only, humanity on the earth would have fallen into decay.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 277.

There were two Jesuses. “[T]wo Jesus children were born. One was descended from the so-called Nathan line of the House of David, the other from the Solomon line. These two children grew up side by side. In the body of the Solomon child lived the soul of Zarathustra. In the twelfth year of the child's life this soul passed over into the other Jesus child and lived in that body until its thirtieth year ... And then, only from the thirtieth year onward, there lived in this body the Being Whom we call the Christ, Who remained on earth altogether for three years.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA (Anthroposophic Press, 1968), p. 59.

Steiner claimed that he knew of such things because of his occult investigations — he was an avowed occultist. “Occult investigation shows that the individuality [i.e., soul] who was in the Solomon Jesus-child was none other than Zarathustra ... [T]he Buddha...permeated the astral body of the Nathan Jesus-child.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM JESUS TO CHRIST (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), pp. 133-136.

Christ, the Sun God, was known long before he incarnated on Earth. The spiritual seers of Atlantis, for example, knew of him. "Already in the ancient Oracles of Atlantis, the priests of those Oracles spoke of the ‘Spirit of the Sun’, of Christ." — Rudolf Steiner, THE DEED OF CHRIST AND THE OPPOSING SPIRITUAL POWERS (Steiner Book Centre, 1954), lecture 1, GA 107.

Steiner often expressed contempt for Roman Catholicism. Steiner's occult religious teachings — which from a Catholic perspective must be considered sacrilegious — pervade the curriculum and activities at Steiner schools, albeit generally in subtle and disguised ways. [See, e.g., "Soul School" and "Spiritual Agenda".]